#onionw

Smaller fandoms definitely need the added publicity and social media exposure, as well as the dedicated following that fansites can usually help to galvanise. EXID is a prime example of how well things can go (though the fancammer was not an EXID fancammer as much as someone who just followed hot girl groups around).

Bigger groups, not so much.

Same with donations for gifts. I’ve talked to a few idols, their friends and family and for the most part for bigger names, they are grateful for them but they’re not needed. To paraphrase one that left an impression on me, “It’s not like the members can’t buy things for themselves when they earn [six digits] a year. We know our fans are usually young and we don’t want fans to be burdening themselves by taking money out of their allowance or first paychecks to do that.” I found new appreciation for that person, putting the fans first, no matter what.

From a business standpoint, a fansite for one member of a big group can usually raise five digits USD, which translates to thousands of albums and goodness knows how many streams and downloads. Given the cost of production of fangoods, delivery costs and a cut taken by most sites either on a personal level or for better equipment, the gifts that arrive are necessarily less than the value of the donations, and as I said the gifts are not necessary.

Popular groups also feel burdened by smaller gifts, like plushie toys and whatnot. Several of the top groups literally have a rented warehouse where they keep all of them, because it’s honestly impossible to put them anywhere else other than landfill at the risk of literally filling up their house from top to bottom.

I’ve used it five times? Last was several years ago and the substance itself not addictive from my personal experience. It certainly relaxes you and makes things a bit easier to cope with but you can find that with anything that comforts you so calling that sensation addictive is fine but weed doesn’t seem like a huge hook in and of itself.

Decriminalisation isn’t the same as legalisation. Decriminilisation just means that having a small amount won’t get you arrested for a crime, and so avoid jail and worse. You can still have it confiscated and fined for possession but it’s still not something you should be doing in the eyes of the law.

Legalisation means tax money coming in from sales (and sales could always be restricted just like alcohol and tobacco are). And that tax money is a great incentive to enforce legislation on control over the substance. Not to mention that I have yet to read about a single case of death from marijuana overdose and yet we see thousands die every year just from simple alcohol poisoning.

Journalistic code of ethics apply here - and they are legally obliged to make reasonable attempt to get a comment from the people that they are reporting on, or a party that represents those people. That’s why you always have “declined to comment” or “denied the story” type texts at the bottom of the articles.

I don’t know how to react to: “Minzy leaving doesn’t change anything in the long run”. I don’t know if it’s that they think I’m dumb enough to not be able to make calculations going into the conversation, or if they really are that dumb. Given how they stay a multi-million dollar company from being good at what they do, it's probably the former.

Damn it, they think I’m dumb.

So the logic we're being told to follow is that 2NE1 only contributed to 2% of revenue in 2015 and pretty much all of that is from royalties in digital sales.

On March 10, I posted about CUBE being in the process of finding a local partner in China to open up an Academy under a franchised/licesnsed agreement. There was some doubt over whether it would be a JV like the their competitors in YG, or a venture controlled entirely by HQ like SM.

It does seem like they’ve finalised what they want and are going with the franchise/license route, which gives them first dibs at the graduating trainees and also claims royalties from revenue earned, all while having no real financial risk if the Academy goes under.

There’s a really good verse from the Bible which is very much applicable to real life: “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.” Anything people are familiar with, but have seen go on to do extraordinary things, they will at first support and then hate. It’s and endless process that cycles with a lot of public figures.

Tiffany is relatable for a lot of international fans and she goes out of her way to be accessible. That is both good for her fans, but also can backfire if it reaches out to anyone who thinks they know better. They think they can put labels on her and discredit her just because she isn’t an inaccessible deified being like most successful K-Pop idols - there’s no inherent language or cultural barrier that mentally separates “people in my life that I can judge freely” and “their circumstances are too different for me to judge freely”.

This and if people dislike you or want to dislike you, anything you do is ammunition. Tiffany tends to be more vocal and visible than most members. Jessica had her fair share of haters from the beginning but her being quiet and not giving a lot of her personality to the masses kept the ammunition low and the hate lowkey. Tiffany on the other hand is always out there and doing things and usually centre of attention for a lot of spots during any of her appearances - her being herself (like anyone else being themselves) just gives more ammunition for haters to fire back at her.

A section of this old post is incredibly relevant: http://borntobeasone.tumblr.com/post/10028194836/p-onion-october-is-shaping-up-to-be-even-more

People started saying that as girl groups appeared to be peaking, and IU was rising faster than them back five years(ish) ago.

With the structure of Korean entertainment as it is now, and with the Korean attention span seemingly pretty damn short, the most certain way to get popular (but more importantly to consolidate popularity and build on it) is to appear to the public as often as possible.